Sheet metal brackets and supporting parts can be used as structural elements that provide support to one or more parts of any product. They can be used to join two or more parts of products together.
These brackets and support parts can also be used to join and hold the entire product as and where required. In the construction industry these brackets can be used to join features like parapets or eaves to walls and columns.
In other industries these brackets can be used to join, hold or support countertops, shelving, different sections of furniture, flooring, and mounted products like televisions, big clocks and art pieces.
Design of a brack and support part depends mostly on the requirement they need to fulfill. However there are some basic components that each bracket has. These components includes
Base Plate
Support Arm
Mounting Holes
Fastener
Bracing
Base Plate is that part of the metal bracket that is fixed with the base of the supporting structure. Base of the supporting structure can be a wall or column or any part of a machine that holds other products like LCD.
Support arm can be exactly the same as the base plate or can also be different. It is that part of the bracket that is attached to the product that needs support.
Mounting Holes are a way to secure metal brackets with the faces of both supporting structure and product that need support. It all depends on the requirements but usually both the base plate and supporting arm have more than one mounting hole.
Fasteners are what secure the base plate with supporting structure and product that need support. Depending on the product that needs support, screw, revit, or nut and bolt can be used.
Bracing is what adds extra support to the bracket and support parts. If the product that needs support is heavy or resists a large load. Then the supporting parts and brackets need bracing.
L Bracket as the name suggests has a shape like the English alphabet L. It has an angle of 90 degree between its base plate and support arm.
The U bracket has a U like shape and its base plate and support arm are parallel to each other. It's mostly used to support two objects or parts of a products parallel to each other
The Z bracket has a shape like the English alphabet Z. Its base plate and support arm have an angle of 180 degree between them.
Gusset Bracket is just like a L shape bracket but with extra support at its both ends. This bracket is specially designed to support extra load.
A sheet metal bracket and support part can be fabricated using several sheet metal fabrication techniques. Depending on the design of the bracket, a metal bracket can be fabricated using a single or series of sheet metal fabrication process.
A metal bracket can be fabricated using sheet metal cutting, sheet metal bending, sheet metal punching, sheet metal welding and sheet metal surface finishing. Cutting process is used to cut the sheet in required sizes, then sheet metal bending is used to bend the sheet into required shape.
After that sheet metal punching can be used to add features like mounting holes. If needed sheet metal welding can be used to weld extra support. Sheet metal surface finishing is used in the last stage to add aesthetics or corrosion resistance characteristics in brackets.
